, and
suggest the queen's going up to Ophelia, to show how we may easily hold
Ophelia ignorant of their plot. Poor creature as she was, I would
believe Shakspere did not mean her to lie to Hamlet. This may be why he
omitted that part of her father's speech in the _1st Q._ given in the
note immediately above, telling her the king is going to hide. Still, it
would be excuse enough for _her_, that she thought his madness justified
the deception.]

[Footnote 11: --ugly to the paint that helps by hiding it--to which it
lies so close, and from which it has no secrets. Or, 'ugly to' may mean,
'ugly _compared with_.']

[Footnote 12: 'most painted'--_very much painted_. His painted word is
the paint to the deed. _Painted_ may be taken for _full of paint_.]

[Footnote 13: This speech of the king is the first _assurance_ we have
of his guilt.]

[Page 120]

_Pol._ I heare him comming, let's withdraw my Lord.
[Sidenote: comming, with-draw]
_Exeunt._[1]

_Enter Hamlet._[2]

_Ham._ To be, or not to be, that is the Question:
Whether 'tis Nobler in the minde to suffer
The Slings and Arrowes of outragious Fortune,
[Sidenote: 200,250] Or to take Armes against a Sea of troubles,[3]
And by opposing end them:[4] to dye, to sleepe
No more; and by a sleepe, to say we end
The Heart-ake, and the thousand Naturall shockes
That Flesh is heyre too? 'Tis a consummation
Deuoutly to be wish'd.[5] To dye to sleepe,
To sleepe, perchance to Dreame;[6] I, there's the rub,
For in that sleepe of death, what[7] dreames may come,[8]
When we haue shuffle'd off this mortall coile,
[Sidenote: 186] Must giue vs pawse.[9] There's the respect
That makes Calamity of so long life:[10]
For who would beare the Whips and Scornes of time,
The Oppressors wrong, the poore mans Contumely,
[Sidenote: proude mans]
[Sidenote: 114] The pangs of dispriz'd Loue,[11] the Lawes delay,
[Sidenote: despiz'd]
The insolence of Office, and the Spurnes
That patient merit of the vnworthy takes, [Sidenote: th']
When he himselfe might his _Quietus_ make
[Sidenote: 194,252-3] With a bare Bodkin?[12] Who would these Fardles
beare[13] [Sidenote: would fardels]
To grunt and sweat vnder a weary life,
[Sidenote: 194] But that the dread of something after